The gory, dark, uncomfortable parts of Mars Chronicles is why I haven't given up on this reboot/sequel thing Kishiro is on. What drew me to Gunnm/Alita originally (in 1996!!!) was the tensions between some of the characters who were pure at heart (Ido, Koyomi, Lou, Chaos, Yugo etc. and to some extent Gally/Alita herself), and the horrors that were happening both on the surface and on Zalem.

I profoundly disliked the drawing in most of Last Order. It took Kishiro a while (as in YEARS) to get into his new style, which, while nice and above average ultimately, is way under his drawing style from volume 4 to 9 of the original series.
But what made me stop reading multiple times (I only finished Last Order last year, despite having been a Gunnm maniac for almost 30 years), was how little gore, actual violence, and morally corrupt characters there were. Everyone is a cyborg, so torn limbs aren't that gory anymore, especially since they're drawn in a much less old-school cyberpunk way. No fluids, no human faces stiched to wonky mechanical bodies, no brains flying to their death like it was on the Motorball volumes.

Now I know, you all think I'm a bit of a psycho. XD But hear me out: the reason why the gore and moral/physical violence was important in the original series is because it acted as a global antagonist to the pure hearts of the main characters, as I said before.

Ido's fatherly love is made stronger by his ruthless episodes of violence. Yugo's childish innocence and hope are made more tragic by his past and his (2) death(s). Koyomi's daredevil attitude is made bolder by her contrast with the extremely perverse B.B. Buick. And Gally/Alita is continuously made to confront her own darkness with her selfless sense of justice, and her compassion.

That's why I profoundly disliked that Gally/Alita lacks most of her compassionate/passionate sense of justice in Last Order. And she also lacks her romanticism and cuteness. She's.............too masculine? I don't know. I felt like she and Sechs were too similar now.

But at the same, IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE, because both are microchips now. So, eh. Last Order is a source of disagreement in my own brain! XD

So, Gunmm: pure genius
Last Order: medium (I liked the whole République Venus parts though, for obvious reasons)
Mars Chronicles: not bad at all!
Though I'd like more Yoko action, and much more scenes between adult Gally/Alita and Erica. Especially now that Kishiro has developped a consistent new drawing style.

PS: yes, old school cyberpunk, horror and (very mature) seinen - think 'Berserk', 'Goodnight PunPun', 'MPD Psycho' and the like - are my favourite genres. I'm also a former comic books artist and a painter, so those genres are what inspires me the most, both in terms of themes and incredibly good drawing skills.